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March 30, 2015

Happy Monday everyone! Or unhappy Monday depending on your view point haha. If it's unhappy Monday, hopefully the swatches I have today will make it a little better. This stunning holo/flakie festival of loveliness is I Love Nail Polish Happily Ever After. Happily Ever After is a silvery lavender with silver flakes and linear holographic pigment. The linear holographic flame is CRAZY intense outside! I wasn't expecting it to be so holo, but it is for sure. Inside, you can really see all of the pretty silver flakes in the lavender base (see the picture below). I also could see the holo inside too, just not in the dimmest lighting.

I love the picture above because you can see the crazy holo, but around the edges you can see the flakes too, it's neat! This is three coats of Happily Ever After. The first coat was sheer, but by the second coat it was nearly opaque. I did a third for good measure and the opacity was perfect. It was extremely easy to apply- I didn't do any clean up here. The flakes are flat and smooth with out any top coat (although I did use a layer in these pictures).

*purchased by me*

I am preeeetttty much obsessed with Happily Ever After. It is a magnificent work of art. I got this during the pre-order for the ILNP Spring 2015 collection and it's not yet available on ILNP.com. However, the spring collection is going to be released soon, so keep an eye out!

March 28, 2015

So only about a year after I first said I was going to switch over to Disqus for comments here, I finally did it, haha! So hopefully that's all working and the old comments should be loaded in a bit. Thanks for your patience!

Well it's snowing again today in CT. Yup, again. Will it ever be spring? I am starting to feel like spring has been cancelled this year! I spent the morning dashing out in between the snow flakes to swatch the Nicole by OPI Coca-Cola lacquers though, so there was a bright spot to my day. Just to mention, any "bubbles" you see on the polish are actually melting snowflakes, sorry about that! First up we have a cheery purple creme inspired by Fanta Grape, Nicole by OPI In Grape Demand. In Grape Demand is a saturated pinky purple with some almost "radiant orchid" tones to it. It feels kind of bright, but also rich and jewel-toned.

This is two easy coats of In Grape Demand. It applied well and the formula was a nice consistency.

Nicole by OPI The Look is Orange is the polish inspired by the "sweet citrus pop of Fanta Orange". The Look is Orange is a great vibrant orange creme with some hints of reddish orange. It looks nice and juicy. Like In Grape Demand, it's kind of bright, but it's somehow richer feeling than a standard bright/neon polish.

This is three coats of The Look is Orange. The formula was good and easy to apply. I had a little bit of VNL after two coats, but three was the magic number.

Nicole by OPI DC Lover is, of course, the Diet Coke polish. It's a super shiny silver foil with metallic red glitters scattered throughout. It is really reflective, so my camera had a hard time really capturing it, especially in today's difficult lighting conditions. The red glitter pops more in person for sure.

This is three coats of DC Lover. It was sheer with the first coat, but pretty opaque after three coats. I used a nice thick top coat over this one to help the red glitter look smooth.

This classic red shimmer is Nicole by OPI Always a Classic Coca-Cola. I always associate this kind of metallic red shimmer with Christmas, so this will definitely be great for that. It's a good true red, not too orange leaning, not too pink leaning.

This is three thin coats of Always a Classic Coca-Cola. You could most likely to do slightly thicker coats and have full opacity. The formula was good, maybe a little thin, but not problematic.

Nicole by OPI Zero is My Hero is a deep burgundy brown shimmer. Definitely reminiscent of the color of Coke, or Coke Zero in this case. Zero is My Hero is a pretty chocolate-toned vampy, great for fans of this kind of color.

This is three coats of Zero is My Hero. I had just the tiniest bit of VNL and unevenness after two coats, but the third made it look rich and perfect. The formula was good, no troubles to report.

Now we have come to my favorite of the collection, coincidentally inspired by my favorite soda of the bunch! Nicole by OPI Seriously Citrus is the Sprite polish of the collection and the only glitter topper. I love how this polish feels just like Sprite, the glitters are bubbly and the green, blue and white colors are refreshing! The metallic green, blue and white glitters look really pretty all together in the clear base.

This is one coat Seriously Citrus dabbed over Nicole by OPI I Shop Mintage. I found this glitter topper to be very easy to apply. I dabbed it on to get the glitters nicely spaced out, but it seemed like it would apply fine with regular brushstrokes too. The formula was great, better than a couple of Nicole by OPI's other glitter toppers from the past.

*sent for review*

Overall, these polishes definitely invoke thoughts of the sodas that inspired them. My favorite is Seriously Citrus with In Grape Demand as a close second. Now I need to go pick up some Sprite!!

The Nicole by OPI Coca-Cola Collection is available now at select CVS, ULTA Beauty, Kmart, ShopKo, Harmon, and Giant Eagle locations in March 2015 for $6.99. Available in Canada at select Walmart and Jean Coutu locations for $10.99.

March 24, 2015

*sent for review*
I have two lovely Lynnderellas for you today. Let's start with a polish made in honor of the lunar new year, Lynnderella New Year, New Ewe. New Year, New Ewe has an assortment of red and pink glitters in a really pretty pink shimmered base. The mix of pink and red is lovely and more complex than a 100% red glitter topper. Lynnderella says New Year, New Ewe has clear red glitter and nearly neon red glitter, as well as pink glitters.

This was easy to apply, I used just one coat over three coats of OPI Be Magentale With Me (one of the Sheer Tints). The glitters in New Year, New Ewe are plentiful and I didn't need to go fishing for any of the larger pieces. The base was a perfect consistency, not too thick or too thin.

Lynnderella Water Violet is a gorgeous mix of bright blue and violet glitters in a violet jelly base. Now, Lynnderella does say in her description that no two bottles are alike, but I found that my bottle had a very pigmented violet base. The glitters really glow in this, they are very vibrant. Some of the purple glitters appear more pinky too, so it's a very complex look in the end.

I originally thought I would have to layer this, so I used one coat of China Glaze Agent Lavender as a base. However, my Water Violet does have a very pigmented violet base, so three coats of this alone would be nicely opaque. It was a little tricky to get the base color to be nicely even, while also spreading the glitter around evenly. I would recommend concentrating on getting the base even in the first coat and then focusing on the glitter.

March 20, 2015

Happy first day of spring!!!! I have spring fever today with some of the polishes from the SinfulColors Spring 2015 Spring Fever collection (even though it's supposed to snow 4+ inches later today, WTF??!!). First up we have the beautiful Forget Me Not periwinkle blue creme, SinfulColors Sail La Vie. I love colors like this for spring- flower colors! Sail La Vie is not quite a pastel, it's a little more saturated, but still has a fresh soft feel to it. I think this will be my first spring pedi!

This is three coats of Sail La Vie. It was on the thin side and seemed pretty sheer on the first coat. However, it built up to full opacity nicely in three coats and was pretty good to work with.

SinfulColors Prized Plume is an "opalescent trend topper", a topper that can add a beautiful iridescent shimmer to any polish. Prized Plume is described as a "iridescent peacock feather blue" and it flashes a little green here and there too. I layered one coat of Prized Plume over Sail La Vie for this look. It looks different in different types of lighting, sometimes it leans more green and sometimes more blue or teal. Very pretty!

Prized Plume was very easy to apply and had a great consistency. It is marketed as a topper and I think would take a ton of coats to wear it alone. This is just one coat over Sail La Vie and it's perfect.

SinfulColors Gold Medal is a pretty metallic gold shimmer. It is a very reflective gold and my pictures were not coming out that great with this one. I like it in person much better than in my pictures. This is two coats of Gold Medal. It applied well, but it does have some visible brushstrokes.

This bright apple green creme is SinfulColors Innocent. This is a great spring color, an electric yellow-y green, like the new shoots of plants peeking up in the gardens. I am a fan of weird greens, so I love this color.

I do not love the formula of Innocent, however. It's thick and hard to apply smoothly. It doesn't seem to self-level. Despite being thick, it also came rushing off of the brush to flood my cuticles, despite the fact that I wiped off the brush quite well. A layer of top coat seemed to even it out, but clean-up was definitely necessary and even with clean-up, my cuticles are stained yellow-y green in places. So, while I love the color, I wish this was a little more user-friendly.

My favorite look of this collection is SinfulColors Petal Be the Day over Innocent. This screams spring to me and I love these colors together! Petal Be the Day is a "Bloomblast Glitter" with royal blue and purple glitters. The base looks like a milky lavender in the bottle, but it's really just clear on the nails, so I chose to layer this.

This is just one coat of Petal Be the Day over Innocent. It was nice and easy to apply and the glitter was plentiful.

*Sent for review*

The SinfulColors Spring Fever collection is available now at Walgreens and other retailers. My favorites are Sail La Vie and Petal Be the Day. For more information about SinfulColors, check out their website SinfulColors.com, Facebook page, Twitter, and Instagram.

March 17, 2015

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!! I am running around doing tons of shows today, but I HAD to quickly show you my St. Patrick's Day mani. I am wearing the STUNNING Lynnderella A Green Rainbow over Sally Hansen Emerald Express, with an accent nail of OPI That's Hula-rious!. Lynnderella aptly describes A Green Rainbow as a "multiglitter that contains assorted holographic and metallic green glitters featuring three-leaved shamrocks in a clear base". The holographic glitter in this is really eye-catching and stands out amid the green. I had a bag of holographic shamrock glitter from some other polish, so I used that for the accent nail. There are also shamrocks in A Green Rainbow itself, but since I didn't want any of the other glitters on my accent nails, I thought it was easiest to use the loose ones.

This is just one coat of A Green Rainbow over two coats of Emerald Express. I used two coats of That's Hula-rious!. A Green Rainbow had plenty of glitter and was very easy to apply.

March 14, 2015

Born Pretty Store recently send me two of their newer stamping plates and a new stamper to try out. The plates are BP-55, a nice selection of floral, leaf and kind of tribal patterns, and BP-49, a mishmash of stars, hearts, diamonds, moons, and more. The stamper is the soft squishy variety that I've been wanting to try. My old stamper is the old harder kind and I've heard great things about the squishy variety. I like it so far, but I did have to prime it several times. I didn't have a crystal file handy, so I think I should still prime it again with a crystal file. It sometimes wasn't picking up all of an image.

I used Sally Hansen Insta Dri Silver Sweep to stamp over Zoya Leslie. I used the BP-55 plate on my pointer and middle finger, and BP-49 on my ring and pinkie. I love how the silver looks stamped over the pale lavender, it's sort of a subtle look.

*sent for review*

I definitely recommend these two stamping plates, especially BP-55. I love the leaf pattern especially, but like everything on that plate. I think I like the squishy stamper too, but I still need some more testing on that after I file it properly with a crystal file. These items are all available at Born Pretty Store!